It is not easy to stop rising temperatures, yet we can take measures to protect our icebergs from breaking and melting, to an extent, by stopping industrial activities. There is also a need to curb the increasing movement in the form of tourism. Apart from this, importance will also have to be given to the measures available to protect the icebergs in our Sanatan knowledge tradition.
Due to the melting of icebergs in the Sutlej river valley located in the Himalayan region, the number of such lakes is increasing, which can become a big risk of floods and destruction in future. Two hundred and seventy three new lakes have been formed in these icy plains. A total of sixteen hundred and thirty two lakes have been counted from Mansarovar to Nathpa-Jhakri. Seventeen of these lakes have reached the danger mark, of which eight are in Chinese-occupied Tibet.
Their area is up to five hectares. These lakes can cause major damage by increasing the water of the Sutlej. Therefore, these lakes are alarm bells for Himachal and other Himalayan states. Geologists are engaged in monitoring the lakes formed by melting icebergs in the four valleys of the Himalayan region – Chenab, Beas, Ravi and Sutlej. Their study has shown that due to the melting of glaciers in the Sutlej river valley, the amount of water in the lakes has increased by four to five percent. It is expected to increase further in the future. Due to the melting and breaking of icebergs due to rising temperatures, the size of the lakes is increasing. The reason for this change is believed to be climate change.
In 2005, the Parchhu lake was broken by a landslide. As a result, the water level of the Sutlej rose and caused havoc in Kinnaur and Bilaspur districts of Himachal Pradesh. Some time ago, a part of the huge iceberg of Gomukh broke off and fell at the origin of Bhagirathi river. However, such deluge was indicated forty years ago by the director and geologist MPS Visht of ‘Uttarakhand Space Applications Center’ (USAC) and Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in their research.
According to this research, more than eight icebergs in the Rishi Ganga catchment area are melting at a higher rate than normal. Obviously, if more water will flow from them, then the incidents of breaking of icebergs will increase. Not only this, the pressure of the water flowing from these icebergs was on Rishi Ganga alone. This water further flows into Dhauliganga, Vishnu Ganga, Alaknanda and Bhagirathi Ganga. These are all tributaries of the Ganges.
That is why UNESCO has also declared this entire area protected. There are six and a half thousand meters high Himalayan peaks here. The icebergs on these summits, which break after being formed due to natural process of thousands of years, prove to be extremely fatal. Studies in the region from 1970 to 2021 have shown that eight icebergs have melted more than twenty-six square kilometers in the past forty years. Of the size of these icebergs that was forty years ago, ten percent of it has melted by now.
Glacier scientists consider the increased temperature of the earth with less snowfall in the background of these events. Geographical conditions are behind the rapid melting of the Sutlej and Nanda Devi icebergs. The temperature here has increased by 0.5 degree and 30 percent rainfall is also decreasing in this area. If the heat on the earth continues to increase like this and the glaciers continue to break, then their effect is sure to increase the sea level and the existence of rivers. This would lead to the sinking of many small-island and coastal cities.
Scientists were currently treating the incidents of breaking of icebergs as ordinary events. They believed that due to less snowfall and more heat, there were cracks in the icebergs, due to the rain water filling in them, the icebergs started breaking. The fire that occurs every year in the forests of Uttarakhand has also worked to weaken the icebergs. If the carbon remains on the rocks, then the chances of new ice formation in the future are reduced.
The melting of icebergs is not a new thing. For centuries, icebergs naturally melt and form a continuous stream of rivers. But after globalization, the carbon emitted by industrial development based on the exploitation of natural resources has increased the intensity of their melting. From the 1950s onwards, their range started decreasing to three to four meters per year. This pace accelerated after 1990. Since then the Gangotri icebergs are melting at the rate of five to twenty meters every year. If this process of melting and breaking of icebergs continues, then there is no such way for the country to provide alternative sources of employment and livelihood to the fifty crore population living from rivers.
Icebergs in Antarctica are also breaking due to rising temperatures. There are continuous reports of their melting and snow decreasing. Images taken by satellite from the US National and Ice Data Center showed that as of June 1, 2016, there was ice on an area of 1110 million square km, compared to an average of 12.70 million square km in 2015. The area around the Earth’s North Pole is called the Arctic.
The region includes the Arctic Ocean, some part of Canada, Denmark’s Greenland, a part of Russia, the United States’ Alaska, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This area is 9,863 km away from India. Sea ice is disappearing off the northern coast of Russia. Due to the continuous increase in sea heat in this region, it is estimated that in a few years this ice will also disappear completely.
Peter Wadhams, lead professor in the Polar Ocean Physics group at the University of Cambridge, claims that the ice in the central part of the Arctic region and the northern region will completely disappear in the next few years. So far nine hundred cubic km of ice has melted in the Arctic. Scientists are considering the melting of this ice as the reason for the floods coming in Britain and America. If the ice here really ends, then the temperature around the world will increase rapidly. There will be many sudden changes in the weather.
It is not easy to stop rising temperatures, yet we can take measures to protect our icebergs from breaking and melting, to an extent, by stopping industrial activities. There is also a need to curb the increasing movement in the form of tourism. Apart from this, importance will also have to be given to the measures available to protect the icebergs in our Sanatan knowledge tradition. People living on the peaks of the Himalayas used to stop water by making small beds during the rainy season till two decades after independence. When the temperature dropped below zero, this water would freeze and become ice.
After this, by pouring salt over this water, they used to cover it with organic waste. Due to this experiment, this snow remained frozen for a long time and in summer this ice used to supply drinking water. We can also call this technique as ‘Snow Harvesting’. However, the Earth’s poles have a natural ability to convert salt water from the ocean into ice. However, the incidents of breaking of icebergs need to be taken seriously. The process of dams and widening of roads by ripping mountains will also have to be stopped. Otherwise, if the patience of the icebergs and mountains continues to break like this, then the series of disasters will continue.